The Italian Cultural Institute is pleased
to invite you to the opening of the exhibition:

Crime & Redemption Theater:
Photography by Clara Vannucci

Curator: Veronica Santi

Friday, February 21st

6 – 8 PM Italian Cultural Institute

686 Park Avenue New York

RSVP

“With my camera I’ve begun to show how the method of acting in prison can be a useful tool for changing the way the criminal mind works.

I started this project six years ago when I was working as the photographer for a video documentary group.

In Europe prison theater is considered to be a highly motivational therapeutic method of working with violent offenders. It has produced positive results for educating prisoners to become functioning members of mainstream society by teaching them how to read, how to work collaboratively, and how to be responsible for each other, as well as themselves.” Clara Vannucci

Prison theater is about redemption. Through the process of learning how to play a role the inmates learn how to make wiser decisions when they are released back into society.

In 1988, at the prison, Volterra, (similar to Sing Sing or Folson Prison in California), Armando Punzo, founded the Compagnia della Fortezza, a theater company comprised of dangerous felons and hard core “lifers”.

Clara Vannucci traveled and documented the company on its tour across Italy.

“One week they were performing in a small town close to the Italian Border. During the day they were free to walk around the square without being guarded. They were free to socialize in local cafes. In the evening they performed to sold-out crowds.

After the performances they were driven to the local prison where they slept in cells as if the prison was more like a hotel – but around them were prisoners and guards.

I asked a prisoner why no one tried to escape since they had chances. He said, “Why should I run? Where would I go? Twenty years I’ve lived in prison. Now I have something to live for. Life has meaning. ”

An extraordinary prison rehabilitation program is changing hearts and minds of hardened criminals. Part of its technique is to integrate the convicts who have proven they can be trusted with good behavior into mainstream society when they perform outside the prisons walls with the blessing of Italian society.

“At that time I understood little about the prisoners lives. I was inexperienced with the reality of life behind prison walls. I had no context about how they viewed their situations or why they had committed serious crimes and at first I couldn’t tell if prison theater would really be able to make a difference in the long run.

The question I kept asking was whether or not criminal behavior can be modified over long term by participating in the rehabilitation theater program.